Beginning in summer 2009, all Bursar invoicing to West Lafayette students (for tuition, related fees and contracted housing charges) will be done electronically when Purdue moves to its new e-Bill system.

“Spring semester will be the last time we mail out paper billing statements,” said Bursar John Higgins, “though the new e-bills will display the same information as our current paper ones.”

Although e-Bill is integrated with the new Banner student systems, it actually is part of TouchNet, a third-party application Purdue implemented earlier this year to process e-commerce transactions.

Higgins said there are several advantages of moving to e-billing.

“Convenience is one benefit; you can access e-bills from any computer with an Internet connection 24/7. There’s also no mailing and postal delays.

“Just as important, the information will be secure and confidential, since an e-bill can only be viewed by its recipient (or other authorized individual). It also cannot get lost in the mail.”

Students already will be set up to receive their e-bills, so they don’t need to do anything to get started. If a student wants a parent, guardian or other person to have access to their e-bills, they can designate them as an authorized user. The student will need to choose a login username and password for this user.

Either the student or their authorized user(s) will be notified by e-mail when the e-bill is ready. They will then only need to click on a link included in the e-mail and log in using the username and password provided by the student. If an authorized user does not have computer or Internet access, the student can print a copy of their e-bill and send it to them via first-class mail. (Both current and previous e-bills can be viewed in myPurdue.)

Once an e-bill has been received, tuition and fees can be paid online using Purdue’s online electronic payment option. Simply log in to your myPurdue account, select the “Financial” tab and follow the prompts.

“Purdue processes more than 300,000 paper invoices each year, so not only will this be more efficient, secure and save us postage, but it’s also better for the environment,” Higgins said.